Hey, New Kid! by Betsy Duffey

Author:Betsy Duffey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group

Chapter 6

To Skate or Not to Skate

“Ah ha! Spoons!”

His mother was in the kitchen, unpacking. The floor was covered with crumpled paper. Pal was sleeping next to one of the boxes.

“So how was your second day of school?”

“I lived,” Cody answered.

He stepped over the piles of paper and sat down on a kitchen stool. He rubbed Pal’s back with his foot.

“Good,” she said.

Cody pulled the invitation out of his pocket.

“Mom,” he said, “I can’t go to a skating party on Saturday, can I?”

She looked up from the box and smiled a big smile.

“Of course you can.”

“I can?”

“I knew you would get along just fine here.” She was beaming. “You’re already invited to a party.”

“Everyone in the class was invited, Mom. It’s no big deal.”

“I’m just glad you want to go.”

“You’d better not let me. I might get hurt.”

“It’ll be fun.”

“I might break a leg, or an arm, or my gallbladder.”

She leaned down to the bottom of the box. Cody could only see her legs.

“It could be dangerous,” he called to the legs.

“Ah ha!” she said. “Steak knives.”

“Never mind,” Cody said. He stood up.

“Wait,” she said as she put the steak knives into a drawer. “I have two surprises for you.”

She led Cody to his room.

“Ta da!” she said. “I finished your room today.”

His bed was put together and made up with his baseball bedspread. All the boxes were gone and his clothes were put away. His baseball glove and ball were on one shelf, his art supplies on another. It made him glad to see his things, but it made him sad, too. The room looked so permanent. Like he was really here to stay.

“The second surprise,” she said, handing him a brown envelope. “It’s from Aaron.”

Cody’s heart lifted at the sight of the envelope.

After his mother left he opened it.

Inside was a cassette tape. Cody went over to his stereo and put in the tape. Like magic, Aaron’s voice came over the speakers.

“Hellllloooooo!” he said in one long burp. “Greetings from the planet Topeka.”

Cody sat back and listened.

Aaron had made the whole tape as if he were living in outer space. Cody closed his eyes and listened to Aaron’s voice, pretending that he was with Aaron. He smiled the whole time he listened.

It made him feel good to know that somewhere, there was still someone who knew him. Really knew him.

He wanted to write a letter to Aaron but he didn’t know what to say. He could tell Aaron that everything was great. That he was cool and popular here.

But somehow he couldn’t do that. Aaron liked the real Cody.

Cody got out a piece of paper and began to write. He told Aaron about the times tables and the skating party. After he finished the letter he illustrated it.

He drew a picture of a boy in front of a firing squad. And one of a boy hiding in the boys’ bathroom. And finally, on a blank piece of paper he wrote The Invisible Boy. He put the letter in an envelope and wrote Aaron’s address on the outside.

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